tonight america's senate braces for a confirmation battle as a pig so-called assassinations john brennan and the supposed maverick pacifist chuck hagel for the top security jobs. also headlining wilting on the welfare one in three tax brazenly u.k. a pumped into and with the burden weighing heavier and heavier on working brits love coming on but coming up. north korea lifts its fire wall for the visit of head of internet giant google of course the secretive states inviting german economist to help open up foreign investment. and a fifth night of rioting in belfast floods up the social and political divide in

northern ireland this place is not only full force on loyalists and about restrictions in displaying the union flag. hello very good evening to if you just joined us it's kevin zero in here ten pm no moscow time this is r.t. international law top story a pacifist accused of being anti israeli in charge of the military and an apparent supporter of harsh interrogation methods in charge of intelligence their president obama's picks to run the pentagon and the cia a washington correspondent can profiles the nominees. by appointing chuck hagel as defense secretary president obama is arguably trying to change the perception that he has embraced bush administration national security policies because after four

years of militaristic foreign policy that's how people see it chuck hagel former senator from nebraska vietnam war veteran has been one of very very few u.s. politicians who opposed u.s. military expansion and who dares to question and dissent from washington orthodoxies on foreign policy one of them has to do with israel if you dare to publicly point out that the u.s. and israel are separate countries and american interests should trump israeli interests when they conflict and that's a subversive thing to say here in washington could be a career killer the advocates for direct negotiations with hamas he condemned the power of the pro israel lobby in washington here's one of his statements to that effect the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i have always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel i just don't think it's smart for israel needless to say his nomination for the position of defense secretary has incurred a slew of objections for the past three weeks different interest groups have been running attack ads on t.v.

saying things like he's soft on iraq and he's a bad choice for the job to go on like the vast majority of us politicians who keep repeating the all options are on the table mantra has allowed himself to say outright that attacking iran is a stupid idea is nomination is seen as a bold move on president obama's part and it's an important decision image wise for the president as hinting that possible changing foreign policy but many fear that charge could deliver that change in full song and more than in substance because there's only so much one person can do in washington and speaking of the other person along with chuck hagel president obama nominated his counterterrorism adviser john brennan as the next director of the cia john brennan has been in charge of some of obama's most controversial policies including the targeted assassinations program one where the. inspiration determine who will be marked for execution without any due process oversight or transparency is the man who's been in charge of president obama's kill list last year john brennan claimed that the

u.s. drone program caused no civilian deaths in pakistan over the prior year which was an outright lie by so many accounts add to that the fact that as a bush era cia official mr brennan had endorsed torture and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program and we can see why he is deemed most fit for the job as the head of the central intelligence agency which over the years has evolved into a paramilitary force the logic some see behind nominating hey girl and brennan for these top national security positions is that when accused of being hawkish the president can say does my defense secretary lew kokesh do you ever accused of being soft he can point out his new cia director who can be accused of anything but being soft gonna shine in washington d.c. the former cia officer ray mcgovern told us he thinks above is definitely missed one target when it comes to america's security. cia director isn't

brennan would have to be the worst. he is an open advocate of what is called extraordinary rendition kidnapping torture black prisons illegal eavesdropping and kill list from these drones that they're so proud of flying over places like pakistan i'm almost compelled to conclude that either he's really dumb or he sees real profit as the corporations do in the profiteering on these and less wars the difference between hale and his predecessors is this hey girl has been there done that ok hagel served in war he was an infantry noncommissioned officer wounded twice to two purple hearts he knows what war is like that means a difference and when hable says he would be very very careful about employing our forces in fool's errands such as afghanistan god help us iran he's going to be

a worthy stand up against people like brennan who don't know the half of it and who never served our countries on forces higgle famously said one time i'm not the senator from israel i'm the senator from america now. does that make good sense on the face of it would somebody be open to criticism for that kind of the you know it shows it shows how delicate this question is in our country that he can't even speak about the jewish lobby or say that he's the senator from the united states and not from israel without being criticized for it what does that tell you about the power of the israel lobby. sliding down a slippery slope into the economic abyss the eurozone new unemployment high then with spaniards again the worst affected we talk about that of the bit later in the program. staying in europe for the next story to one in every three pounds in

taxes raised in britain is now being spent on welfare and i was put together by a government department and a grim picture for a coalition probably yourself or reining in runaway bills more than on this from our london correspondent joining us live laura why the parliament is debating right now is no measures to try to bring welfare cost on the control of the internal of the proposing that's right they are trying to bring this this wildly out of control welfare bill under control and what they're proposing is a one percent cap on the rise in benefits traditionally in this country benefits have risen in line with inflation inflation of course always much less much more than one percent so they're proposing a cap minister say that the cap is needed because the state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages during these types in the last five years out of benefits of risen by twenty percent whilst wages have risen by just twelve percent that this proposal is not going away that are worried that if they do get through

all those measures are considered comprehensive enough to do the job to rein in welfare. well i mean this is a hoping. the coalition government that's proposing these measures and the labor gov the labor party that is it's pretty comprehensively opposing it's all about this kind of what we've seen in recent weeks this strivers versus skivers thing where the government says it wants to support people who are going out to work trying hard to make money versus the people who are staying in bed all day and they say it's fair because public sector pay under a sarah c. measures is being kept and private sector pay is rising below the level of inflation so why should people who are on benefits get more money and the tories go all about having to support these people and the stamp out its benefits culture and make it more profitable for people to be working than for people to be sitting at home on benefits but again not everyone agrees so where is all that money go in short it's not all. well it's not and that's the key thing obviously

a lot of it jobseekers allowance employment and support allowance that does go to people who are out of work but a lot of it goes to in fact two thirds of it goes to lower paid workers so people who are strivers these various drivers that we've been talking about essential workers nurses rubbish collectors people without whom the country would come down to its knees and that's what labor's talking about working tax credits child benefit those kinds of things and in fact a charity the children's society has come out and said that if you are single or single primary school teacher or a nurse with two children you're going to be losing four hundred twenty four pounds per year by two thousand and fifteen under these new measures so certainly very controversial it says we're not all in it together in fact what we are what we what the government's proposing to do according to labor is hits households towards the bottom of this is the economic scale much harder than they hit households further up and i mean look at that headline again one in every three pounds in taxes going

to well for what is the average brit think about that i suppose it depends which side of the fence you're on whether you're getting some of that welfare or giving it away. it does and i think i think the average person in the street is very keen to stamp out these skydivers as the government sort of initially called them but now is backing away from that people who are staying at home with the curtains drawn in bed while ordinary people while the strivers go out to work but the fact is these measures according to labor would hit those poor people harder more children in poverty they say the language association says it could contribute to more homelessness and it'll hit women particularly hard because they're the people who child tax credits go to for example and of course people struggling to pay for rising inflation rising fuel prices rising food prices and to put food on the table and then on the other side of the coin we've got a tax cut for the rich that will be introduced in april less anything happens if you over one hundred fifty thousand pounds

a year after april you'll be paying five percent less tops and then you pay fifty percent forty five percent if you own a million pounds that's going to save you forty thousand pounds per year and people are up in arms about babs multi-story smith in london thank you so much. plenty ahead getting to the teeth is a controversial date being set on the calendar in the united states we're talking about online tonight a right wing group of americans is organized a special day to call out weapons to buy them and fire them to tell you why it r.t. dot com also to the mystery of the missing million dollars tese very pretty a sledgehammer wielding thief took it twenty five years ago now it's been on earth to get this turned up when read up more about that mathias that went missing but now isn't starting don't call.

north korea known for its reclusive tight internet controls is playing to a high profile visit from the us now one of the guests being head of online giant google in fact the trip while promoted is a private and humanitarian ones pretty speculation though about the company's plans may be to expand into the secretive state washington's friend to get on the visit calling for sanctions on pyongyang after the recent rocket launch meanwhile also reports to that north korean authorities are hiring german economists to help open the country for a potential foreign investment is going to jump from the washington d.c. institute for policy studies to be what north korea has to offer to investors. but u.s. officials care because they're trying to tighten the screws on the sanction regime against north korea but to be honest there aren't a lot sanctions they can levy against north korea at this point where the most

heavily sanction countries in the world so what they're looking for basically is more a kind of atmosphere of condemnation and for a trip like this to go forward is to basically go against this overall atmosphere north korea positions itself as a leader in information technology i mean people may find that amusing but that's the case north korea's computer programmers are top notch they their animators are top notch they see themselves as as taking information technology as a vehicle into the twenty first century so having someone like google google's eric schmidt come for a visit is extraordinarily important for this i t kind of success of north korea it's got trained workforce highly educated and no trade unions i mean no trade unions are going to cause any strikes and that's a big plus for outside investors another thing is raw materials north korea has

a enormous amount of mineral wealth and at the moment china has pretty much locked up access to that but north korea i think is interested in getting a couple more bids maybe getting some more money there and then of course location north korea is in the middle of one of the top economic zones in the world so if you're going to open up a business in northeast asia why not think of north korea. changing direction in search of a better life in a few minutes we report from venezuela for you which is becoming more appealing to those who failed to find economic and social harmony a more traditional way. using crime is a plague of the big cities but in a tiny arkansas town of twenty five thousand it is really getting out of hand pure gold is a property crime index of more than double the national average and rape burglary

and assault are also way above average poor poor gold is a dangerous place to live in but what's the answer to living in constant fear of criminals well the mayor thinks that the answer to that problem is to live in constant fear of the government how logical the mayor and police chief have a doorstop plan to send out police patrols with fifteen's and full swat armor to i guess intimidate the local population into submission well actually the plan is for them to stand around it ask people an important question ask them to show id the answer to crime isn't a police state sending guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just to check people's i.d. like it's the berlin wall or something won't do anything a guy who breaks into your house for crystal meth money isn't going to be average citizens will have to show an armed thug of their id just to go buy milk but that's just my opinion.

lucky.

it's a. song from dallas to. me these firms don't come.

well again the eurozone jobless rate sits a new record high with spain again suffering the most followed by greece while nearly twelve percent are out of work across the over a quarter of people in spain can find a job that's a worrying number of course and it's coming in with fresh demonstrations and three thousand doctors and be marching against government plans to party promise health care a move they fear will ultimately lead to job cuts spanish political analysts miguel and coleman rather spoke to us he says that is not alarming sign that these traditionally pro-government medical workers turned out in protest now. what is interesting about these protests in the health care sector is that it is different from a sociological point of view from all the protests we're seen around spain we've seen of course teachers and and. public sector workers of all sorts transport all the services are basically on strike or staging protests now what is different

about the is that you have doctors which are traditionally in spain like elsewhere are traditionally more conservative they most of them they backed the government prior to its election so this is their own people that he said happy with the way the government is going so i think it will it will make a difference it will it will cost some extra problems for that for the current government another country desperately to put a lid on its runaway spending is the united states too and later on this channel max kaiser looks down the barrel of washington's murky financial plan. why is the pentagon off the table but pentagon spending is a function of money printing it's a function of money printing because money printing more ordinarily cause massive inflation but dead soldiers equal deflation that's how you have to look at that arlington national cemetery that's america's answer to inflation it's the

deflationary forces of genocide and pentagon budget increases and killing helpless women and children around the world that keep stuff in america cheap enough for the casino good like last to keep themselves i'm amused and distracted. as economic stagnation brings despair to what was once a land of prosperity many of those hunting for a better life and i'm making so unexpected choices lucy custom of reports next from venezuela on why the country is becoming a more attractive place to to move. with no end in sight to the financial crisis many are finding refuge in countries with an alternative economic model or some venezuela represents a whole new opportunities the bolivarian republic may be a surprising choice after all it's been ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the hemisphere whose murder rate exceeds that of iraq still the world bank says

venezuela draws the largest number of immigrants after argentina with one million flocking here in two thousand and ten alone who's. going to get weaker rosa is one of them after decades of struggling in the u.s. she decided to start anew in venezuela. and that's come to you completely alone you go that trying to find a new way but to really alone nobody helps you there nobody in caracas the helping hand came from the government a cheap loan to kickstart a small business and subsidies that enabled her to purchase this home that's why rosa and others like her see the country as a place where. you can move more freely you have more opportunities. robust economic growth and increased spending on social projects to help create those opportunities having the state on your side in terms of the benefits is a huge think as you don't have to worry about your basic necessities everyone has

the right to universal free health care quality health care education at all levels the government provide subsidies to start up small businesses medium sized businesses that do the same in terms of housing to help people if they're coming from a country where the economic crisis is so bad they've been cutting all those benefits but as i began to look like a paradise that may certainly seem to be the case for those on the bottom president hugo chavez helped bring the poverty rate down from fifty percent when he took office to roughly thirty one percent and the u.n. says venezuela has the lowest level of inequality in latin america. it's one child as diehard supporters among the poor but what about the rich critics say childless is alienating the wealthy many of whom turned out in droves to vote for his opponent in october closely contended election twenty first century socialism hasn't helped us it has hurt a child his opponents blame his so-called socialist experiment for problems like limited foreign investment they say that it's driving businessmen and entrepreneurs

out of the country. by daniel year g.'s himself a young businessman disagrees after spending twelve years in barcelona he decided to return to venezuela not just for the economic benefits he says but for the chance to partake in a different sort of future order there are two very different political forces in this country one wants to move towards capitalism the other is on the path of socialism in the october election the people of venezuela voted to make the country greener they're out much to create more opportunities i mean in this regard many venezuelans like myself have decided to return home and so they do showing that for some gambling in venezuela system may be worth the risk you see catherine of r.t. venezuela. of course the main matter in the minds of those in venezuela right now is the health of their president hugo chavez is due to be inaugurated on thursday to serve another term but he could be too ill still to attend when he battles cancer his political rivals are demanding

a new election if he doesn't show up mr weathers for pepe escobar from the asia times online is headed toward more of a chance his health conditions her may well affect but as well as politics it's a big week there isn't it and the government says the swearing in ceremony is just a formality and it can be delayed the opposition though says it wants an official court ruling over what's next if chavez is not there for an organization the church has chipped in as well how do you see the situation panning out this weekend pepper well it's it revolves around the technicalities specter according to the article two thirty word of the venezuelan constitution he can be sworn in in front of the supreme court and he doesn't have to be this week you could be in a matter of two three four weeks four weeks so one months the problem is his battle against cancer how much longer will who stay cool will he be able to recover in venezuela itself will he be fly you know all the time to cuba to consult with his doctors over there so this poses

a problem for the long run and second we still all know how this is going to be solved technically it is likely we're going to have. the vice president in power for thirty days and they call for other real actions or if everybody waits to see what's going to happen which is well the big problem in fact is what's going to happen which are these. people around chavez have been around this for three years now this is the know how to run the country. as the critics that say how not to run from this well but in fact that as well now is a success story in terms of developing economies it is a mix of our western capitalism it is a democracy rules in like all do you actions. free and fair if he has some sense this is off socialist experiment in terms of reducing poverty what that child has accomplished if you put it in perspective is even more extraordinary that what lula

accomplished in was in fact one of those front runners the two men around the nicholas madeira to instead of putting a knight in front of the moment there's a lot of speculation on the top they don't actually get on that well they're after each other's necks yes it's true because that they're part of different strands inside chevy's more like the chevy's war is not a monolithic saying like would dare to say the communist party in china dad least four or five different factions fighting for power and this is one of the problems a for we have an unsteady situation in terms of chavez house because there will be an internal struggle for power inside this mall and met the same time we're going to have more possibilities of foreign interference trying so you know a louvered this process and i mean specially our friends in washington who all the news he will see an opening well maybe this is the beginning of the end of just of

shabbiness work let's get it out if there was some sort of snap vote taking place what you think would happen. why not one of these factions probably faction would win because at all forget that the last elections that chavez were in won with over sixty percent of the whole and that's a absolute majority of the minister of lasers in favor of what's been happening for the special for teen years so chavez but without charges would remain in terms of developing venezuela the problem is who's going to be defection soon lead it from now on and these people have no charisma just like politics and the opposition themselves they also don't have charisma so i can imagine it's like if you're one of these days you lose a poor cartney and there's nobody else thank. you why why has there been so little information released about what's really happening with chavez we know it's some kind of pelvic cam so we know he's been in for treatment but why has the official

information at least been so scant. this is not very good at this is that this came from a high high up of fact and that even the key to cuban doctors are not allowed to speak. you know the communication between days not because the prognosis maybe is just too grim yes yes yes this is of course. most people now we we're all speculating about it but it's true we we don't have a clear medical landscape of what's going on which obviously and then this is terrible if somebody how to run going to as well as from now on and for the prospects of a chavez himself in the future as you said a lot of questions raised there pepe thank you for being on the program probably ask about their asia times and you respond thanks very much now this deep trouble for turkey amid a violent resurgence of kurdish militants we talk about that after the break it's the crisis in neighboring syria that's fading the separatist aspirations there more

now than shortly.